On May 17th I had the opportunity to photograph the Revolutionary War Encampment at the Daniel Boone Homestead in Birdsboro, PA. Unfortunately I couldn't spend more than three hours at the event due to scheduling conflicts.

Please look at the photos, considering them as a whole, and give me your observations. I do enjoy photographing these events. There is a WWII encampment coming up in early June here in the Reading, PA area.

I looked at your set, and rather liked them. I have some problems with photos of re-enactors, as they usually end up looking like photos of re-enactors, which seems less than ideal to me. Now, of course, there was no photography in the era, and these are in fact re-enactors, but I just wanted to say that because the ones that were most successful to my eye were the ones that least resembled re-enactors and most resembled the original actors, as these were more immediate and allowed me into the scene better. Manicured lawns, while I realize unavoidable, particularly distract from the immediacy of the images.

'Spinning' and 'Knitting and Mending' definitely strike as most true, and 'British Officer' is excellent. The extra bits of environment and props, especially in the first on, really help. All the people look too clean and like their clothes have never been worn--I wonder if you could get away with throwing dust in the air and going over them with a dusty brush, just to put a little life into all those new clothes. More of those guys need beards--perhaps you can sell them on a consultation before their next photo op: "Okay guys, were going to play a game where everyone rolls around in the dirt for fifteen minutes. Great--now dust yourself off, wear those clothes for the next week before the re-enactment, half of you don't shave, and everybody take a stiff hair brush to your clothes day before. No, no--this is good photography--you'll look great. Okay, see you all in a week."